How Kids Are Affected by Media Portrayed in Media

school computers. the Internet has brought violent activity into hundreds of millions of homes with the click of a mouse. video games allow young people to participate in violent acts within the confines of their bedrooms often without the knowledge of their parents. and, adolescents tune into violence portrayed through song on their iPods.One of the major societal problems of the 21st Century is that exposure to violence in individuals under the age of eighteen is pervasive. Those who dismiss the effects of this continuous exposure to violence contend that it has no long term effects.This paper argues that repeated, long-term exposure to violent acts portrayed in the media has a measurable, negative impact on young people under the age of eighteen. Moreover, the paper posits that these negative effects translate into abnormal behaviors during the adult years. The growing body of literature on this topic will be used as evidence to supports this thesis. The paper concludes with several recommendations for addressing the problem.It is a well-known fact that our cognitive development is strongly influenced by the external environmental factors to which we are exposed during childhood. Parental influences, behaviors that we acquire from observing peers, the books that we read, and a host of other factors help to shape our personalities and affect how we define our relationships with others. It seems reasonable, therefore, to expect that watching television, playing video games on the computer, and watching films regularly will impact a child’s cognitive development. When the child is constantly exposed to acts of violence through these media, it seems to make sense intuitively that violence will play some role in the cognitive development of the child.The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) published a statement in July 2000 strongly urging that some action be taken to limit the amount of time that children are exposed to media violence.